Prime Sale Begins with Consumers Avoiding High-Priced Purchases on Amazon
The fall sale for Prime subscribers at Amazon.com Inc. began on Tuesday, with budget-conscious shoppers primarily purchasing affordable kitchen gadgets and clothing instead of indulging in expensive items.
Customers spent an average of $38 during the first eight hours of the event, which is 2% more than the same period last year, according to Attain, a research company that collects credit card transactions.
Even as shoppers save on their purchases now, Amazon tracks customers’ browsing activity so it can offer them tailored offers later in the season when they’re willing to pay more, said Brian Mandelbaum, chief executive of Chicago-based Attain. Other retailers looking to divest from selling on Amazon are doing much the same.
“This is a masterclass in how to anticipate the consumer ahead of the season,” he said. “Every shopper has their own symphony of deals heading into the holidays.”
Consumers are persistently struggling with persistent inflation, even as their debt obligations and savings shrink. The continuation of student loan payments suspended during the pandemic is also expected to weigh on expenses.
U.S. online sales rose 4.8 percent to $222 billion in November and December, according to Adobe Inc., surpassing last year’s 3.5 percent increase but well below 2019’s pre-pandemic level of 13 percent.
Another research firm, Numerator, said Amazon-brand batteries have been the best-selling items so far during the sale. About 60 percent of items sold cost less than $20, while only 3 percent were more than $100, according to the company, which collected data from 890 shoppers who placed 1,379 orders.
Amazon launched its Prime Day summer sale in 2015 to attract new subscribers who pay $139 a year for shipping discounts, video streaming and other perks. The event helps Amazon lock in shoppers before the holidays and deepen its relationship with existing customers by offering them exclusive deals on Amazon gadgets and other products.
The Seattle-based company added another event last year, called the Prime Early Access Sale, where shoppers largely avoided high-priced items and loaded up on discounted pantry items instead. This year’s fall sale has been renamed Prime Big Deal Days.
Over the course of two days, US online sales will reach $8.1 billion, which is 6.1% more than a year earlier, according to Adobe.
Consumers seem willing to start their holiday spending early as long as they find the discounts attractive enough. About 64% of shoppers said they would start shopping in October this year, compared to 53% a year ago, according to a survey by online shopping watchdog RetailMeNot.
About 58% of those surveyed said they would shop on Amazon’s Big Deal Days and plan to spend $154, about $100 less than those surveyed planned to spend on July’s Prime Day sale.
“People are definitely looking,” RetailMeNot editor Kristin McGrath said. “How well these sales work and how much people actually buy remains to be determined.”
